Internet

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9–Security Flaws, Bugs and Fixes? Use or Dump? [Advisory]

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The German government urged the public on Tuesday to temporarily stop using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer after a bug was discovered which is yet-to-be repaired. The German government’s Federal Office for Information Security, or BSI, said it was aware of targeted attacks and that all that was needed was to lure Web surfers to a website where hackers had planted malicious software that exploited the bug.

This security flaw in IE may enable attackers to exploit the bug, targeting hundreds of millions of computers, to infect the PC of somebody who visits a malicious website and then take control of the victim’s computer.

ie9-logo

Our advisory in using the IE browsers except IE10 are:

  • Though IE browsers are considered to be most secure ones, we advise for now you look at others
  • The IE big fix will be released in the next few days by Microsoft and will be available for download only then
  • There have been a few attempts to exploit the bug, but German officials claim that this issue can be misused in large scale hacking
  • Users should take proactive actions to ensure that their PCs are well protected
  • For time being we advise all users to download and install the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) version 3.0 which is designed to help prevent hackers from gaining access to your system

Microsoft claims that the Fix will be an easy-to-use, one-click, full-strength solution any Internet Explorer user can install and it won’t even require a reboot of your computer.

We hope that the Fix is releases ASAP and we are sure that Microsoft is working on it.

Save Web Forms And Refill Data Easily With Simple Form Filler User Script

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Simple Form Filler Userscript

When you are browsing the internet, quite often you need to fill out web forms. Modern day browsers have become more intelligent and most of them offer an option to ‘auto-fill’ the web form using the data you previously entered while filling out the web form. But then, the in-built browser’s auto-fill option (for most of the browsers) is not complete and can easily ditch you when you need it the most.

Thankfully, there are many web form savers available as browser add-ons but  ‘Simple Form Filler’ just beats out the rest in serving the purpose. Simple Form Filler is a userscript that you can install on supported browsers like Firefox, Chrome etc. and it adds a small red dot-like button to all the webpages that you browse. The usage is pretty much simple; Just fill out the form on any webpage and click on the red button and it will save the entire form. So in case if you need to comeback and fill the form again by re-entering the data, just click on the button again and it will fill out the form with your saved data and thus saving you a lot of time, particularly when you are in a hurry.

IRCTC ticket reservation

And if you live in India, you might know how hard it is to book a train ticket under ‘Tatkal’ scheme just after 8 AM. The server crashes, webpage doesn’t load properly and so on. You need to re-enter the data in the web form all over again and again. And here is where this userscript saves you. All you need to do is fill in the form for the first time and click the red button to save the data. In case of any failure, you come back to the form and hit the small red button again and it automatically fills in the form for you with the data that you entered previously. That way, you can save time in filling in the form multiple times.

Install Simple Form Filler GreaseMonkey Userscript [Userscripts.org] Via [LifeHacker]

Search Subtitles Faster With TinySubs

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TinySubs realtime search

If you are searching for a subtitles to watch a a foreign language film and still not able to find it, try TinySubs.com next time, it should do the work for you. TinySubs.com is a dedicated search engine for subtitles and  fetches the results in realtime. But TinySubs doesn’t host any files on its serves, it only searches for the subtitles from the host sites.

TinySubs screenshot

The usage is simple as you do with most other search engine, just enter the name of the movie to be searched, choose the language and hit enter. You should now be presented with the results listing all the subtitles it found with details including the actual site where the subtitle files are hosted, the language of the subs and whether they are “1-CD versions” or “2-CD versions”.

To try the real-time subtitles search, visit TinySubs.com

For quicker access, you can also try the TinySubs add-on for Firefox.

Found via LifeHacker

The US National Broadband Map

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National broadband map

You are moving to a new place in the United States and are in need of getting a new internet connection but not sure about who provides the best internet (better term may be ‘faster internet’) ?
No more worries, we now have a solution in the form of the ‘National Broadband Map’ here. It came from none other than the Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) of the Obama administration.

The National Broadband map for the United States (developed by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration) is a national broadband map containing data for thousands of broadband providers with more than 25 million searchable records and the results will be delivered in a map. You just have to key in your ZIP code or even street name along with ZIP code for even better localized result. The National Broadband map will then show you all the different Internet Service Providers along with the actual speeds that they are offering in your area.

National broadband map USA

As you can in the screenshot above, I have around five different broadband providers to choose from for my query (ZIP Code 94043 in California) and you can see that Comcast is the fastest broadband provider in this area when compared to Etheric Networks (which is also offering decent speeds), AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. You can quickly get to know about availability of a particular ISP in your area (anywhere in the United States), or compare the available providers without needing to enter their websites or view the overall broadband connectivity map of the U.S.

Visit National Broadband Map

[via]

[How To] Change IP Address of Your Network Adapters in Windows 7

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Windows 7 logo

Changing the IP(Internet Protocol) address of your computer is a basic thing we do at times. Well the IP address we see in our local computer network adapters are mostly for a local networking purpose. There is always a global Internet IP provided by our Internet Service Providers(ISP).

But why do we need to change the IP address? It may be required when you want a local connection be done with no DHCP(Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) servers. It is because of the DHCP servers are present in most of our systems, we need not provide an IP for every connection, the DHCP host takes cares of the IP allocation. But when you are in your own custom network without a DHCP host, we definitely require to set the IPs of our own to fit in the network.

Here I am going to demonstrate changing an IP address of a local network adapter. This can be used to change the IP Address of any adapter like Wireless LAN, Local Area Connection, Bluetooth Adapters or even virtual Network Adapters.

Step 1:

Go to the following location: Control Panel—>Network and Internet—>Network and Sharing Center

Click on Change adapter settings in the top left corner.

network-and-sharing-center

Step 2:

In the next window, you can see all your adapters. Right click on the adapter you want to change the IP, say Wireless Network Connection. Click on Properties.

adapter settings

Step 3:

In the properties window, select Internet Protocol Version 4(TCP/IPv4) and click on properties.

network adapter properties

Step 4:

Now Select Use the following IP address. Type the IP address details you need. and Click OK.

TCP IP v4 properties

Your IP address has been successfully changed.

Notes:

1. Default gateway is required when you have to connect to the internet using a router or another computer.

2. DNS servers may be required in case of a direct connection to the internet through you adapter.

3. Validate settings upon exit can also be used to validate the IP if you want.

Given below is some of the IP address formats that we use. You can always use a private network format for your personal use.

ipv4 address format

IP formats source: Wikipedia

Important Note: Once you set your IP address manually, the DHCP host will not allocate the IP address for your network adapter. Make sure you set it to Obtain an IP address automatically in Step 4 in order to use DHCP host addresses.

Airtel Offering Free Facebook Access Till August 31

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Free Facebook on Airtel

India’s leading telecom operator Airtel in an attempt to make youth use its internet services via GPRS (Airtel Live), has announced a free access to the popular social networking site Facebook free till August 31, 2010. During this period, Airtel users can browse the mobile version of the Facebook site, which is currently available in English and Hindi. The company has also said the site will soon be available in five other Indian languages which include Punjabi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam.

How To Activate:

Just type “FACEBOOK” and send as SMS to 54323 to get started you will soon receive a reply message with the following content:

Free browsing of Facebook! Click on http://m.facebook.com to enjoy Free. To avail the free offer, Save Airtel Live Setting as default. Valid till 31 Aug 2010

Please remember that browsing any site other than Airtel Live portal and Facebook would cost you (pay per data).To surf all the websites, you need to use Airtel RC 98 which gives you unlimited mobile internet (up to 2GB) for 30 days.

It’s worth to note that Uninor, another mobile operator, is also offering similar free (sort of) access to Facebbok, twitter and LinkedIn in a different way for it’s MyConnect unlimited internet users.

Via Airtel PR

Try The New YouTube Online Video Editor

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YouTube online video editor

YouTube has launched a new free online video editor for those videos that you upload to the YouTube.

This is on-par with the most of the offline video editor softwares like Windows Movie Maker or iMovie. This online video editor tool allows you to do various action on the videos like combine multiple videos, trimming the beginning or ending of the video, adding soundtracks from AudioSwap library, you can even created new videos directly in the YouTube without worrying about the file formats or uploading problems.

This feature has been launched under TestTube, where YouTube tests whole lot of new upcoming features (like Real-Time comments search etc.).

Watch the funny video below to know more about it:

Link: Access YouTube online video editor

Bing Facebook Map App Shows Your Friends Location On Facebook

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Fconnect my friends on bing

Bing Maps team has created a new app called “My friends”, which pulls your data from Facebook profile to show your friends locations on Bing maps.

Just open the My Friends application, login through Facebook Connect, select “Allow” to allow the Bing Maps to connect to your Facebook profile, that’s all you need to. Now the profile pictures of all your friends who have listed a “Current City” in their profile will be pinned to the map,

Current City in Facebook

as you can see here:

Facebook friends in bing

It’s really fun to see all your friends location on a map like this, just click on the “+” sign that may appear above any of your friends profile pictures to see more friends located in that particular city.

Link: My Friends Map App @ Bing

Different Ways To Watch FIFA 2010 Football World Cup Live On Your PC And Mobile

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FIFA 2010 World cup

The 2010 FIFA World Cup is all set to kickoff today (June 11, 2010) with the first match to be played between South Africa Vs. Mexico. The best way to watch Soccer World cup matches live is to sit out in your home, relax and enjoy the live action your HDTV. But if you are away from home on your work or for some other reasons, being a big fan of football, you might still want to catch up with the all live action. Here we are coming up with a guide on different ways to watch 2010 FIFA World cup matches live streaming online on your PC as well as on your mobile phone.

FIFA World Cup 2010 Live Online Streaming:

1. ESPN, the leading sports network in the USA is offering online live streaming via ESPN 3. Starting from the World cup kick-off  on June 20th, ESPN 3 will stream all 64 games of FIFA soccer world cup 2011.

Espn live webcast.

2. Canada’s popular national public broadcaster CBC Sports website is set to stream every match live between June 11th to July 11, 2010.

CBC canada

3. TVU networks, popular internet live streaming platforms is also expected to provide live streaming of  FIFA 2010 world cup matches.

TVU screenshot

4. BBC also steps into the live webcast arena with its BBC Sports website and the folks in the UK will be able to watch the live football world cup matches (in high quality) online.

bbc sport uk

5. Apart from BBC, popular commercial television network in the UK, ITV will also be providing the 2010 FIFA World cup matches online streaming via ITV Live. Viewers can  see all 64 matches live including video highlights, real-time stats and much more.

ITV Live FIFA 2010

Live stream on your phone:

1. Optus, the second biggest Australian telecom company will be live streaming FIFA World cup 2010 South Africa matches free to the customers with compatible 3G mobile phones.

Optus_Australia_live_Fifa_3G[1]

2. ESPN Mobile TV will stream 56 2010 FIFA World cup matches live including Kick-off, semi-finals and final with HTC EVO 4G and other Sprint phones ay 3G and 4G speeds. This is also available on

AT&T Mobile TV – $9.99 per month (available on limited phone models)

FLO TV – $14.99 per month

MobiTV –  $9.99 per month

Sprint TV – according to data plan

Verizon V Cast Mobile TV –  10 matches will cost $15 per month (on limited phone models)

ESPN Mobile TV

3. MobiTV [Update: Link expired] is another good application to watch live matches online on your phone. It supports many AT&T, Sprint and Verizon phones and also on T-Mobile with HTC HD2 device.
mobitv

4. If you are using an iPhone, read about Top 6 fee World cup iPhone apps.

Follow FIFA 2010 WC updates on Twitter:

Follow the 2010 FIFA World Cup updates on Twitter from FIFA official Twitter account @fifaworldcuptm.

There are popular sites like Justin and UStream where some users may provide live streaming obviously through some illegal ways (like streaming their TV screen through a webcam etc.). They won’t longer for much time and will be removed by the corresponding administrators of the websites.

Earlier we had covered live streaming of WWDC 2010 event and Oscars 2010 .

Add A Background Image To Google Homepage

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Google new official logo

Google has recently announced a new feature that lets you choose your own background images for the Google homepage similar to the Bing.

This feature is initially available to US version of Google, Google.com. This feature will be rolled out to the users outside US very soon. However no will stop you to visit Google.com/ncr and access this feature. Here’s how we can add the background image for Google homepage.

1. Visit Google.com/ncr and click on the “Change background image” link on the bottom left of the page.

Google homepage

2. Now you can choose the background picture from your computer, your Picasa Web photos, Google public gallery or from editor’s picks.

Google background image selection

3. Click Select to apply the background image and you are done, and the Google homepage will now look like this one in the below screenshot.

Google homepage with background image

Note:

  1. When you upload a image from your computer, it will be saved as a photo in a new unlisted album in your Picasa Web Albums.
  2. Image Requirements: Landscape, Min. resolution: 800 x 600 pixels
  3. Image formats: .jpeg, .tif, .tiff, .bmp, .gif, .psd, .png, .tga